Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Cases of new coronavirus rises to 17, number of deaths is 11

"The deadly and mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Saudi Arabia last year has claimed two more victims, bringing the official death toll to 11," and the case count to 17, the Los Angeles Times' "Booster Shots" blog reports.

28 Mar 2013

Study links genetic variation, wheezing illness to childhood asthma risk

About 90 percent of children with two copies of a common genetic variation and who wheezed when they caught a cold early in life went on to develop asthma by age 6, according to a study to be published March 28 by the New England Journal of Medicine.

28 Mar 2013

Trovagene introduces urine-based HPV-HR DNA test for identifying high-risk HPV strains

Trovagene, Inc., today announced the commercial availability of its urine-based HPV-HR (high-risk) assay, a molecular human papillomavirus test.

27 Mar 2013

New vaccine proves highly effective against H5N1 virus

Until now most experimental vaccines against the highly lethal H5N1 avian influenza virus have lacked effectiveness. But a new vaccine has proven highly effective against the virus when tested in both mice and ferrets. It is also effective against the H9 subtype of avian influenza.

26 Mar 2013

Study: Virus that causes cold sores may be associated with cognitive problems

The virus that causes cold sores, along with other viral or bacterial infections, may be associated with cognitive problems, according to a new study published in the March 26, 2013, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

26 Mar 2013

A new strategy to prevent herpes virus infections

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a novel strategy for preventing infections due to the highly common herpes simplex viruses, the microbes responsible for causing genital herpes (herpes simplex virus 2) and cold sores (herpes simplex virus 1).

26 Mar 2013

Researchers test protease inhibitors with potential for prevention, treatment of norovirus infection

A Kansas State University-led team is researching ways to stop the spread of norovirus, a contagious stomach illness that infects one in 15 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

25 Mar 2013

Researchers expand hematopoietic stem cells for bone marrow transplantation

More than 50,000 stem cell transplants are performed each year worldwide. A research team led by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators may have solved a major issue of expanding adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) outside the human body for clinical use in bone marrow transplantation -- a critical step towards producing a large supply of blood stem cells needed to restore a healthy blood system.

25 Mar 2013

Anti-inflammatory drug naproxen may exhibit antiviral activity against influenza A virus

The over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug naproxen may also exhibit antiviral activity against influenza A virus, according to a team of French scientists. The finding, the result of a structure-based investigation, is published online ahead of print in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

25 Mar 2013

Study reveals role of SNX27 protein in brain function

What is it about the extra chromosome inherited in Down syndrome-chromosome 21-that alters brain and body development? Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have new evidence that points to a protein called sorting nexin 27, or SNX27.

25 Mar 2013

Study shows certain T cells are stimulated to provide protective antibody responses with flu vaccines

Collaborating scientists from Nationwide Children's Hospital, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research, and Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified an important mechanism for stimulating protective immune responses following seasonal influenza vaccinations.

25 Mar 2013

Translational Research's April issue examines progress, outlook of gene therapy research

The April issue of Translational Research examines the progress and outlook of gene therapy research, with a specific focus on the clinical applicability of gene therapy today.

22 Mar 2013

Scientists find new way to move DNA through cells

Scientists have cracked a 35-year-old mystery about the workings of the natural motors that are serving as models for development of a futuristic genre of synthetic nanomotors that pump therapeutic DNA, RNA or drugs into individual diseased cells.

22 Mar 2013

Fralin Life Science Institute researchers use TALENS to alter mosquito genome

Virginia Tech researchers successfully used a gene disruption technique to change the eye color of a mosquito - a critical step toward new genetic strategies aimed at disrupting the transmission of diseases such as dengue fever.

22 Mar 2013

Researchers develop new approach for HIV vaccine development

Decades of research and three large-scale clinical trials have so far failed to yield an effective HIV vaccine, in large part because the virus evolves so rapidly that it can evade any vaccine-induced immune response.

22 Mar 2013

Cocaine can be lethal for people living with HIV

Cocaine, already a damaging drug for those with healthy immune systems, can be lethal for those living with human immunodeficiency virus. Mudit Tyagi, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has received two federally funded grants to study how dangerous this combination is in HIV patients.

22 Mar 2013

Findings provide structural basis for development of drugs to fight enterovirus 71 infection

New research findings may help scientists design drugs to treat a virus infection that causes potentially fatal brain swelling and paralysis in children.

22 Mar 2013

HIV home tests: an interview with Dr Nitika Pant Pai, McGill University

30 years into the HIV epidemic, there is no vaccine in sight. Yet, even though there are fantastic and effective cheap and universally available drugs, and a treatment as prevention strategy is known to work, people do not wish to get tested for HIV! If everyone got tested, and treated, we could have brought the infection under control a long time ago!

21 Mar 2013

Some public health experts concerned over Saudi Arabia's response to SARS-like virus

"A SARS-like virus has infected 15 people, nine of whom have died, mostly in Saudi Arabia, worrying some Western scientists who question whether the kingdom is sharing enough critical data on the outbreak," "[b]ut a top Saudi Arabia health official rejected those complaints on Tuesday and said the virus posed a low risk of pandemic," the Wall Street Journal reports.

21 Mar 2013

Hepatitis C and HIV co-infection treatment: an interview with Prof Boecher, Boehringer Ingelheim

Chronic hepatitis C infection is one of the most frequent chronic infectious diseases worldwide. The WHO estimates that 150 million people worldwide are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV).

20 Mar 2013